Wednesday, December 08, 2004

British work hard to insulate Muslims from all criticism

It's very hard to understand how many Muslims, especially those with the most extreme views, can simultaneously incite horrific violence against others, while claiming victim status for themselves -- but they do it. The following is from an interesting op-ed in the Telegraph regarding a proposed British law that would stifle any speech about Muslims in England. (You may have to register to follow this link but, when I registered many months ago, it was free and painless.)
Religious hatred Bill is being used to buy Muslim votes: "Instead of following the American government in making all foreign aid contingent on how societies treat religious minorities, notably Christians, the Government is cravenly allowing so-called leaders of the British Muslim minority to alter our fundamental laws.
Has it canvassed other protected 'minorities', such as women or homosexuals, regarding whether Islam should be insulated from criticism of how it treats both 'groups'? If such a law had existed in the 1980s, Salman Rushdie might have been prosecuted for writing Satanic Verses rather than being protected by the British state. It will soon be illegal to criticise, say, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who, on a recent trip to Britain, entertained Mayor Ken Livingstone with the chilling intelligence that homicide bombers can 'legitimately' kill women and children in Israel, husbands can beat their wives everywhere and that homosexuals should be put to death."